Toulouse Gunman Sent Videos of Killings To Al-Jazeera

He said he uploaded videos onto the Internet for the public to see his killings. He said he recorded the brutal acts of killing three French soldiers, three Jewish children and a teacher. After a French special police force killed the Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah after a 33-hour stand-off in his apartment, the police found the killer´s camera on the videos he was talking about.

What they did not know was that Merah apparently had already started to spread the footage. Today the Paris bureau of TV-Channel Al-Jazeera has received a letter containing a USB stick. On the memory device Al-Jazeera staff discovered video of shocking content.

The footage was that of Mohamed Merah, the video sequence that he recorded when he shot and killed his victims. Unconfirmed reports say the material contains a montage of videos accompanied by various Islamic songs and reading from the Quran.

French police was informed by Al-Jazeera about the letter. The investigators confirmed the authenticity of the video footage. Apparently the letter and the gruesome video was sent from a village in Southern France on Thursday or early Wednesday as it was bearing a post stamp of March 21.

On that day the siege of the Toulouse aparment of Merah was ongoing (it started in the night from Thursday to Wednesday). This is why French police believes it was Mohamed Merah or his brother Abdelkader who sent the material to Al-Jazeera.

Still unclear is wether or not Mohamed Merah was able to upload the footage onto Youtube or any other website. Till today no video has surfaced which of course does not mean it may not be in the hands of Jihadi activists in Europe or outside.

Meanwhile French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a radio interview Mohamed Merah has probably never trained in a Al-Qaida camp in Pakistan or Afghanistan. He also had no known links to terrorist organizations, Sarkozy said. Merah appears to be a self-radicalized Muslim who apparently traveled alot.

Before Merah traveled to Tajikistan and then crossed into Afghanistan in November 2010 he had made a journey to Jordan and entered Israel. During questioning by the Israeli “Shin Bet” intelligence agency Merah said he was on a holiday trip – and was allowed to continue his traveling. In his passport police found stamps proving Merah´s travel activities – Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Afghanistan, Pakistan.